disability
Etymology

Circa 1570 disable + -ity.

Pronunciation
  • IPA: /dɪsəˈbɪlɪti/
Noun

disability (uncountable)

  1. State of being disabled; deprivation or want of ability; absence of competent physical, intellectual, or moral power, means, fitness, and the like.
    • 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC ↗, book:
      Grossest faults, or disabilities to perform what was covenanted.
    • 1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC ↗:
      Chatham refused to see him, pleading his disability.
  2. A mental condition causing a difficulty with an intellectual task.
    Dyscalculia is math disability.
  3. (Disability studies) An inability imposed on a person by society's failure to accommodate their physical or mental differences from others, as opposed to impairment.
    Synonyms: handicap
  4. Want of legal qualification to do a thing; legal incapacity or incompetency.
  5. (uncountable, informal) Regular payments received by a disabled person, usually from the state
    I had to go on disability after the accident.
    Did you get your disability this month?
Synonyms Antonyms Related terms Translations Translations
  • French: pension d'invalidité
  • Russian: пособие по инвалидности



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
Offline English dictionary